"I think it's misleading for people to think that muesli bars
are healthy and that people can eat as many as they want without
any consequences in terms of their weight," Elmslie said.

She said some muesli bars and popular hot drink powders are high
in sugar and many people tend to overload on them.

"For some people it may be that they do have to avoid those
foods, because there are some people in the population who find
moderating their intake of certain foods very difficult."

She said an overwhelming amount of advice can be confusing and
contradictory, and this list is designed to provide straight
answers.

The NEEDNT list is aimed at obese people for therapeutic use in
consultation with a medical practitioner, she said. It is not a
public health intervention.

The list was compiled from number of sources, including the
National Heart Foundation, Diabetes New Zealand and Canterbury
District Health Board.

The authors say that with 63% of New Zealanders now either obese
or overweight there is an urgent need for new strategies or
guidelines to deal with the growing health issue, and the NEEDNT
list is one possible approach.

Statistics from the 2008/09 Adult Nutrition Survey by the
Ministry of Health found that there had been a 10.7% increase in
obesity in males from 1997, and a 7.2% increase in female obesity
for the same period.

The authors intend carrying out further research to examine the
impact of the NEEDNT list on overweight or obese adults who want to
lose weight.

The complete NEEDNT list and what to replace them with (*
means stop eating entirely):